Throughout the project, the Building Committee has been mindful of the financial impact of the project on today’s taxpayers, while planning a school that will serve the town for the next century. The Committee has explored multiple ways to reduce the cost of the project, all resulting in a lower project cost to taxpayers. This blog summarizes these cost-cutting efforts. …

This blog answers questions that have come up recently regarding very preliminary project estimates for $150M that were included in the Request for Service (RFS) documents when the Building Committee was soliciting proposals for an Owner’s Project Manager and a Designer/Architect in 2016. . Budget development is an ongoing process through the Feasibility Study and Schematic Design phases of the …

As the project nears the end of the Schematic Design phase, the Building Committee has spent the past few weeks reviewing refined cost estimates and discussing adjustments to the project budget. At the February 5 meeting, the Building Committee voted unanimously on a proposed project budget of $291M, a $17M reduction from the preliminary estimate of $308M last summer. Read …

At the January 22nd Building Committee meeting, the committee further discussed the results of the Parmenter space and cost analysis performed by HMFH Architects. After reviewing the study results and a discussion of the pros and cons, the Building Committee voted to use the Parmenter School only as a temporary location for Menotomy Preschool during construction of AHS and not …

4/22/19 Note: The figures used in this blog are based on Preferred Schematic Report estimates from 2018. For an updated analysis with the more recent Schematic Design project budget, refer to our updated blog. Arlington, Belmont, Waltham, Saugus and Somerville are five High School building projects navigating through similar challenges–dense suburbs with somewhat comparably scaled projects being undertaken generally within …

The Arlington High School (AHS) building houses several different programs that are necessary and important resources for our public schools. Menotomy Preschool is a crucial part of Arlington Public Schools (APS) because it provides state and federally mandated inclusion-based education for Arlington’s preschool students who require special education services. In addition, it provides opportunities for AHS students to take hands-on …

The Building Committee invited the Arlington community to provide feedback regarding exterior design concepts, an updated site plan and reuse/re-creation of historic element concepts. Information on these elements was presented at the Nov. 28 Community Forum and feedback was solicited at the forum and via an online form. This post summarizes the community feedback gathered on these schematic design concepts. …

Building a new high school is a huge undertaking and there are many considerations when estimating its cost. In this series of two blog posts, these cost contributors will be broken down and explained. This post covers the costs that are unique to Arlington High School as detailed in the spreadsheet below. The next blog will address the project estimate …

The new high school is a big project and has sparked numerous community conversations. We are glad that it is of interest to so many. However, members of the Building Committee have seen some misconceptions arise on the AList, Facebook, and elsewhere and we would like to address them. The biggest misperception is that the massing diagrams are the final …

Following is a summary of the Sept. 24 forum, with links to the presentations. You can also watch the forum on ACMI (1st hour: project update; 2nd hour: site discussion). Nearly 150 community members attended the first community forum of the Schematic Design phase. Additional forums are scheduled for November 27 and January/February (date TBD). The AHS Building Committee’s goals …